DISNEYLAND SNEAK PEAK...

Well, I've been trying to upload a video of Hope and Halle with Mary Poppins for a few hours now and it never worked, so here's some pictures for now of our really fun DISNEYLAND VACATION that we had with Justin's family on December 12-16! They decided for everybody's Christmas that's what we would do this year... all expenses paid for by Grandma and Grandpa Barnes!

Here's how we roll...


Here's Halle all excited to go on her 1st scary/roller coaster/big kid ride Splash Mountain with her Dad... You couldn't convince myself or Hope to go on it!


I was so scared for her... I got them falling down the hill on video camera and as I was waiting I was starting to have major anxiety thinking about Halle going down that part and wishing I could save her! Look closely and you can see Kendi's hair and arm behind LeAnn. Both little Halle and Kendi's first height requirement ride... that they did together!


This is how Haven was on most of the rides the entire time we were at Disneyland!!! I'm surprised in this picture she's actually sitting by herself, because 99.9% of the time she was on my lap crying and plugging her ears or wanting me to plug her ears for her while she bit her nails! This is the train that goes all around Disneyland... she was nervous as can be! Oh I remember why she was off my lap here in this picture... we were stopped for quite sometime waiting for another train in front of us to depart and they were having some difficulty cleaning something up for hmmm 30 minutes, so I was able to pry her off my lap and stick her to the side of me. But, not even the bumper cars in California Adventure at A Bugs Life did Haven want to sit on the side of me to ride the car. The lady inspector had to tell me she had to be flat on her pockets and she screamed and fought me the whole time and those cars putt around in a circle! Oh me oh my she has quite the fear!


Hope and Halle and Justin loved Dumbo... look at Halle's excitement on her face and Justin who is thoroughly enjoy himself! We couldn't convince Haven to try this one!


Had to meet the Princess' at Disney Princess Fantasy Faire and we met Snow White,


Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and


Jasmine... and this was the 2nd time we met Jasmine. The 1st time we met her in Adventureland at Aladdin's little plaza/house thing.


Here's all of us together... just missing Jerika who had finals in school and couldn't miss!


The really tall Christmas tree that was in the front of Main Street... so beautiful at night!


Here's the picture I've been telling everyone about of Halle who tugged on the Fairy Godmothers coat and she finally noticed and turned around and took Halle and Hope by the hand and led them to the front of the line of Cinderella, just to see her!


Then took them to a great spot to get there picture taken with her!


Cinderella had the girls pose all the same...


Now here is Miss Hope with her Mary Poppins... she was sooooo excited to meet her she said "Mom she is my favorite Princess!" Then Hope asked me if it would be ok if she asked Mary Poppins to sing her a song and then she would know it was the real Mary Poppins! So, this is the picture where she is asking...


Mary Poppins asked her what song did she want her to sing and I think Hope was thinking for a moment and Mary Poppins said how about Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (I had to look that word up to spell it out)...?


Her singing...


and singing, even sang the song backwards, then asked Hope if she would like to come DANCE with her in front of the castle at 3:15 p.m.!


Now Hope was just beaming from ear to ear saying "I get to dance with Mary Poppins, I have a date with her in front of the castle!" I thought maybe she says that to everyone that meets her, thinking we would only go if we remembered... oh and sure enough Hope asked every couple minutes if it was time to go to the castle. We were a few minutes late, due to saving some spots for the parade that started at 4 p.m., but we rushed over there just Hope, Halle and myself! The circle of people was quite large, but we managed to find a spot where we could see on the side, but within seconds of arriving Mary Poppins looked our way and waved to the girls... (another moment that had Hope grinning) then a few minutes later signaled to us to come closer pointing and mouthing come up front. So, I didn't even really think, but just knew I had to make it happen and get the girls up there... I really didn't know what was going to happen, but just in case Hope was really going to be able to dance with Mary Poppins I had to get her up there. Or maybe being up front would feel like we were really dancing with Mary!? Without much hesitation I told the girls to crouch all the way down and we weaved in between peoples legs... may I note I did not look up once... for fear of the other people's reaction! We made it right up front and plopped down, where only a few others were sitting. Everybody else was standing. Then after a little song and dance from Mary Poppins and Burt... Mary Poppins came over to Hope and Halle and grabbed their hand and took them to the center of the circle and Burt handed them a chimney sweep and Mary showed them a little leg kick dance and danced in a circle and held hands! Oh, it was simply amazing. Probably one of those moments they won't forget! It was just so great that Mary Poppins gave them so much attention and really lived up to her name and every little girls dream.

Best Buddies


We finally made it on over to California Adventure the last day... the boys and wild woman LeAnn (j/k LeAnn) had to do California Screamin and we had to try out the new Toy story Mania ride that's right over there!


I thought this was a cool picture Justin took of me with my girls and 2 of my nieces Kendi and Kirra. Not a lot of adults in the fam like the spinny rides, I don't mind and I'm their chaperone! They make me a little kid again!

HALLOWEEN FUN...

Dad here's some pictures of the girls, so you can see the pumpkins we carved and the girls cute costumes!

We went to the Pumpkin Patch in Paragonah for our Anniversary with the girls, we didn't have much time to enjoy the Pumpkin Patch, because it was soon closing due to darkness!

We let the girls line up all of their options by the car, and by the time we were ready to pick out which ones we wanted it was too dark to see really. So, we ended up taking them all... which let everyone have two... and 5 little ones for the kitchen!

After we came home we had some homemade carmel apples, which were way to sweet... we used Gala apples instead of Granny Smith. Note to self, don't do that again!

Jocelyn's Mom (Grandma John) was coming through town to stay the night, because her last Aunt on her Mom's side had just passed away and she wanted to attend the funeral in Provo.... so Grandma John was in town for the night and the girls were all excited to go up and see her!

Haven could not get enough of Grandma John, Haven had noticed Grandma John putting on chapstick and it was over from that point. Haven would get it out of her jacket pocket and Grandma John would put it on her and then Haven felt comfortable enough to do this several times, even putting it on herself. It was the funniest thing to watch. Grandma John seemed like "no biggy" with Haven all over her. At one point Haven was even taking off her shoes to see if her toenails were painted... and Grandma let her, to show her, her cute toes were painted.

Love this picture!

Family Night Pumpkin Carving Night...

Haven scooping out the inside of the pumpkin.

Halle insisted on doing it all by herself and worked a long time scooping it all out!

Hope and Halle drew their design on the white board and Justin copied their idea with marker onto their pumpkins.

Then they poked around his lines...

and then carved with a little saw out his lines. Here's Halle's she wouldn't stop carving, which lead to the eyes, nose and mouth getting droopier and droopier! This was the first time she did it all on her own... it really did look creepy!

Hope's finished product... her first time also, doing it all by herself!

We tested them out in the kitchen before taking them outside... everybody's except Haven's pumpkin, we did gut it, but she just poked holes and colored on hers.

Haven's pumpkin

Hope's pumpkin

Halle's pumpkin

Justin's Pumpkin

My pumpkin

Justin's work had a potluck and everyone requested our sugar cookies, so we did it together making this time bats, pumpkins and ghosts! Justin really frosted them this time making them look really professional!

All dressed up for Hope's Halloween Carnival for school that was last Friday... Halle the Cowgirl!

Haven the Ballerina

Hope the Southern Belle

I was trying to stick with a "Southern" theme for Halloween, but all I could come up with for little Haven was a horse or cow to match her sisters... and I couldn't get myself to my buy one of those costumes and actually put her in it... after the cute costumes her sisters were wearing! So, she got to wear the first costume Justin and I bought for Hope when she was little... both Hope and Halle have been this Ballerina!

Saturday's Trick-or-Treating required warming up the costumes, so glad we didn't have any rain, since just a few hours before it was hailing... our first stop Grandma and Grandpa's where we met up with Jared, LeAnn, Kendi and Aydri!

Grandma had so much help answering the door... she ended up telling the girls they could do it all by themselves!